[755] 



CHARACTERS. 



I 



Memoirs of the late General 

 Melville. 



GENERAL Melville was de- 

 scended from the Melvilles of 

 Carnbee, in Fife, a branch of the 

 ancient and noble family of his 

 name, of which the chief is the 

 present earl of Leven and Mel- 

 ville. The original stock of this 

 family was a Norman warrior, one 

 of the followers of William the 

 Conqueror, who, on some disgust 

 he conceived at his treatment in 

 England, withdrew into Scotland 

 in the reign of Malcolm Canmore, 

 from whom he received lands in 

 Lothian, about 1066; and branches 

 of his family were afterwards esta- 

 blished on lands in Angus and 

 Fife. 



General Melville's parents dying 

 when he was very young, his 

 guardians placed him at the gram- 

 mar-school of Leven, where he 

 80on distinguished himself by a 

 quick and lively apprehension, 

 united to a singularly-capacious 

 and retentive memory. From 

 this seminary, his rapid progress in 

 his studies enabled him to be early 

 removed to the universities of 

 Glasgow and Edinburgh, where he 

 continued to apply with the hap- 

 piest success. His fortune being 



but moderate, he, in compliance 

 with the counsels of his friends to 

 select one of the learned profes- 

 sions, turned his views to the study 

 of medicine ; but his genius strong- 

 ly prompting him to follow a mili- 

 tary life, and the war then carry- 

 ing on in Flanders presenting a fa- 

 vourable opportunity for gratify- 

 ing his natural tendencies, young 

 Melville could not resist the temp- 

 tation. Without, therefore, the 

 knowledge of his friends, he pri- 

 vately withdrew to London, where, 

 upon astatement of his motives and 

 determination, he was furnished 

 with the necessary means of car- 

 rying his projecls into effect. He 

 accordingly repaired to the Ne- 

 therlands ; and, early in IT^^-, he 

 was appointed an ensign in the 

 25th regiment of foot, then forming 

 a part of the allied army. That 

 campaign he served under field- 

 marshal Wade, and all the follow- 

 ing, up to the peace of Aix-!a- 

 Chapelle, in 1748, under H. R. H. 

 the duke of Cumberland, partly ia 

 the Netherlands, and partly in 

 Britain, whither the regiment had 

 been drawn in IT^o, on account of 

 the political troubles in the king- 

 dom. In the end of 1746, the re- 

 giment returning to the continent, 

 ensign Melville, at the battle of 

 3 C 2 . Lafeldt, 



